Howard Elkins sits in the back of the band. No less valuable and productive than any other picker of strings in the state, Elkins plays tenor banjo and tenor guitar in the Jim Cullum Jazz Band. Occasionally, he'll sing a tune or two. The group's repertoire comes from a different era, the '20s and '30s. So does Elkins' approach to playing his 1936 Gibson No. 4 Mastertone banjo and his 1938 Epiphone Zenith tenor guitar.

"For the earlier form of jazz we play, the four-piece rhythm section, piano, bass or tuba, drums and banjo or guitar, the kind of rhythm section that Count Basie had with Freddie Green on guitar, that's the rhythm section," Elkins said. "Everyone plays rather simply, even the piano.

"Count Basie and Freddie Green played that four-beat style, and there's an art to it. It can sound very choppy, but you have to play it with a triplet feel. The bass player plays straight, the drummer plays rather simply. Playing in a four-piece rhythm section to me is a lot more difficult than playing in a three-piece."

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Instead of trying to bust out of the rhythm section into the front line, Elkins helps lay the foundation and takes an occasional single-string solo.

"It's like being in a boat going down a river that's real smooth," Elkins said. "To me, it's exhilarating. For a lot of guitar and banjo players, it's boring. To me, it makes the band sound good."

Elkins, 64, was born in Oklahoma. His dad was a Methodist preacher. The Elkins family moved to El Paso when Howard was in high school.

"When I was in college, I became interested in playing banjo. I knew how to play piano a little. I met two or three guys who were into traditional jazz," Elkins said. "A couple of the guys had great record collections. I'd go to their houses and they'd preach to me about what was good. I played all through college. I went to work for the W R Weaver Co. making telescopic rifle scopes and played a little on the side."

In the late '70s, a group of El Paso jazz aficionados booked the Jim Cullum Jazz Band for a festival.

"That's where I met Jim," Elkins said. "A year later, he called me looking for someone to play banjo in the band. I auditioned for a week and joined the band."

Cullum gave him a tenor guitar.

"I didn't care for the standard A-D-G-C tuning, so I tuned it down a fifth to D-G-C-F so it would sound more pleasing to the ear. It wouldn't be so trebly sounding," he said. "I tried playing six-string guitar, I gave it a good run, but the tuning was foreign to me. Plus it's easier for a banjo player to double on tenor guitar."

When banjo wizard Béla Fleck joined forces with pianist Marcus Roberts and his band for the "Across the Imaginary Divide" CD, some banjo fans and some jazz fans acted as if that was a revolutionary accomplishment. But banjos were present at the beginnings of jazz.

"Banjos started out in jazz partially because they could be heard," Elkins said. "Johnny St. Cyr played with Louis Armstrong. I paid close attention to his playing. Mike McKendrick ("Big" Mike McKendrick) played banjo and tenor resonator guitar with Louis Armstrong. Fred Guy played banjo and guitar with Duke Ellington. Fred Guy played very simply and played straight time. His playing on 'Mood Indigo,' that nice-sounding tenor banjo, caught my ear.

"When swing bands came in, the banjo fell out of favor."

There's no formula for what instrument Elkins plays on what song.

"Jim doesn't want me to fall into any traps," Elkins said, laughing. "Usually you'd play guitar on slow songs, banjo on hot tunes, so I intentionally mix it up. When we play 'Stardust,' I'll play it on banjo. When Mike McKendrick played 'Big House Blues,' he played the National guitar. On a hot tune like Jellyroll Morton's 'Milneburg Joys,' I'll play banjo sometimes, guitar sometimes."

When he's not on the bandstand, Elkins tends 200 pecan trees on 10 acres west of Lytle.

"I try to grow pecans commercially," he said, laughing again. "My place is part of an old orchard that was planted in the late '20s or early '30s. This year is not a good year for pecans. We didn't get enough rain. But this keeps me from being a couch potato during the day."

At night, though, Elkins will be working with his banjo and tenor guitar in the Jim Cullum Jazz Band rhythm section.

"I've been pretty lucky to play 34 years in one organization," he said. "I've played with great players. Jim and (pianist) John Sheridan know so many tunes it keeps it interesting. Jim has done quite a job of keeping this band going for 50 years. I don't know where else I could work with the same band for 34 years."